Canon now has a number of different inkjet all-in-ones that use the same or very similar print engines. The MX series of printers, such as the PIXMA MX885 reviewed here, is aimed at the SOHO market, rather than primarily at photo enthusiasts. It includes an Automatic Document Feeder (ADF), rather than direct CD/DVD print, and duplex print and copy.

This is a big, all-black box, with rather too much high-gloss black plastic that'll quickly become covered in finger marks. It's never been a particularly good look, so why provide a finish you have to keep buffing up with a soft cloth? The ADF feed tray folds out to quite a steep angle, partly due to the fact it has to cope with a duplex feed path.

The control panel is unusual in having 16 buttons with no legends on them. Canon has ingeniously used LED backlights for these buttons to provide them with two completely separate sets of functions. It's a bit like the touch panel on the lids of some of the PIXMA MG range, except here it's combined with less-expensive, conventional pushbuttons.

In one mode, they show arrow keys for navigating menus on the large, 75mm colour LCD screen, while in the other - which flashes up when you select fax - they show a numeric pad. Additionally, there are four large mode buttons for copy, fax, scan and photo reading, and others to start and stop scan, fax and copy jobs.

Below the control panel, the front panel folds down to become the output tray and underneath this is a 150-sheet plain paper feed tray, with another pull-up tray at the back, which can be used for plain or photo paper.

A curved cover at the right end of the front panel reveals memory card sockets for the main types and there's a USB/PictBridge socket below. At the back are sockets for USB and Ethernet connections, but the machine also supports wireless and handles WPS setup, though only with a passcode.

The five ink cartridges clip into the semi-permanent printhead and, as usual, small red LEDs indicate correct insertion and flash when ink is low. Software is also Canon's standard fare, with basic handling of scanning, OCR and printing on Windows and OS X machines.